Social issues could make difference in presidential race for Iowans

1/1

Charlie Neibergall/The Associated Press

Stickers await early voters at a library in Davenport, Iowa. The state has a measure on the ballot that could draw social conservatives to the polls, possibly helping Mitt Romney’s chances of winning the swing state.

PLEASANT HILL, Iowa — Evangelical leaders have preached all year that Republicans cannot win the White House without Christian conservatives — and a nominee they can support.

Mitt Romney was not their first choice. Or second. Or third.

“He’s the last man standing,” Terry Amann said over coffee last week in this swing state, where religious conservatives are an important constituency. “He’s the Republican nominee, so we’re going to support him.”

In an election year where the economy has trumped social issues, evangelicals have found themselves without an emotional center to rally around. Many are backing Romney not with an enthusiastic embrace but as a pragmatic decision — a choice less about voting for the GOP nominee than voting against President Barack Obama.

“Probably at the end of the day people are so concerned about Obama’s lack of ability they’re going to do what they need to do on Election Day,” said Amann, a pastor at Walnut Creek Community Church in suburban Des Moines.

White evangelicals who describe themselves as “born again,” accounted for 26 percent of the electorate in 2008. In Iowa, it’s higher — 31 percent, which four years ago broke about 3-to-1 for Republican John McCain.

In Iowa, as in the rest of the handful of states that will decide the presidency, the contest between Romney and Obama is very close. Here, as in other crucial swing states, evangelicals have been slow to warm up to Romney because of his Mormon faith and inconsistent record on issues they care about, especially same-sex marriage and abortion rights.

“Social conservatives are not very pleased with President Obama. And many of those activists I talk to say it’s really important to defeat him because we disagree with him on — well, you name it, it’s a long laundry list,” said University of Akron political scientist John Green. “But many of them are also not enthusiastic about Romney.”

But Iowa, like other polarized states, has seen its share of social-issue battles. In addition to the presidential fight, votes this year are driven by an effort to oust a state Supreme Court justice who voted to allow gay marriage — and, helping Obama, by a push back to defend the status quo.

With jobs, taxes and budget deficits atop the headlines, evangelicals seem like a forgotten battalion in the Republican armies of the right. But in their desire to replace Obama, they have framed the economy in terms of their values while keeping the moral issues they care about — abortion, marriage and religious expression — very much part of a voter-registration and get-out-the-vote GOP base strategy in battleground states like Ohio, Virginia and Iowa.

A recent Pew Research poll showed that 74 percent of white evangelicals support Romney, a percentage point higher than McCain when he was the Republican nominee but less than George W. Bush in 2004. Team Romney knows that to win, he must keep that evangelical support and build on it with other groups, such as suburban women and the white working class, the so-called Reagan Democrats.

After tacking sharply to the right for the fractious primary, Romney has moved to the middle. His pitch to the evangelicals has come in fits and starts, reflecting his audience.

Romney has largely avoided talking about his Mormonism, which some evangelicals don’t believe is true Christianity. He delivered the commencement address at the late Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in May, where he emphasized religious freedom as a constitutionally protected guarantee. After a meeting this month with the Rev. Billy Graham, Romney’s staff made sure the photos were widely circulated.

Perry in Iowa

Perry — himself the choice of some evangelicals during his brief, fumbled presidential bid this year — is a Romney surrogate. In a recent conference call sponsored by East Texas evangelist Rick Scarborough in support of his “40 Days to Save America” voter-motivation campaign, Perry tried to rally Christian conservatives by saying the separation of church and state was a doctrine Satan has used to keep people of faith out of politics.

On Saturday, Perry was in Iowa as a guest of honor at the Faith and Freedom Coalition banquet, a fundraiser to pay for the group’s registration efforts and influential voter guides.

“There is a war being waged against people of faith,” Perry told the faith-based crowd.

The coalition is led by veteran activist Ralph Reed, who has developed a database of 17 million reliably conservative religious voters by combining census data with reading habits and other personal information, including what TV shows they watch and whether they’ve bought a Bible.

Reed says in the campaign’s final weeks, voters in 15 key states will receive three phone calls, email and text messages, at least three pieces of mail and, in some cases, personal visits by one of more than 5,000 volunteers. His voter guides are being distributed to more than 100,000 churches, including Amann’s.

Other Christian conservative groups are also working to register and turn out evangelical voters. The Campaign for American Values PAC is broadcasting a TV commercial in swing states in which Romney declares: “I will not take God out of the public square.”

“There’s a great deal of energy to make Obama a one-term president,” said Bob Vander Plaats, an Iowa Christian activist and president of the social conservative organization, the Family Leader.

Vander Plaats is leading a local effort to oust Justice David Wiggins, and he believes it could tip the state in Romney’s favor. Obama holds a slight lead in state polls.

Critics of Wiggins want him removed because of his 2009 vote to strike down Iowa’s ban on gay marriage. Voters in 2010 took the unprecedented step of removing three justices who ruled against the law, and Vander Plaats has mounted a grass-roots campaign to oust Wiggins, who’s up for retention this year.

“The Wiggins race is going to impact all conservatives on the ballot,” Vander Plaats said recently at his organization’s headquarters at a strip shopping center in Pleasant Hill. “Some people are going to go to the voting booth only to vote against Wiggins. But while they’re there, they’re not going to vote for Obama. They’re going to vote Romney.”

Vast energy

Much as the same-sex marriage issue on the ballot in Ohio boosted turnout to help George W. Bush win re-election in 2004, Vander Plaats says the Wiggins-retention issue could determine the outcome in Iowa this year.

“The energy is vastly among the conservative base,” he said. “And that’s one thing that a lot of the polls miss — where is the intensity of the voter? It’s the conservative, freedom-loving voter today vs. this lukewarm, moderate, anything-goes Barack Obama.

“I don’t see the intensity on his side. I see the intensity on our side.”

But the effort faces a political headwind. The Iowa Bar Association has mounted a pro-Wiggins campaign. And unlike 2010, this year’s retention effort comes in a presidential election year in which more Democrats will vote.

Still, what if the fate of an Iowa judge plays an important role in determining who becomes leader of the free world? Should Romney close the gap in Ohio, a state Republicans have historically had to win, and match Obama in other hard-fought swing states, Vander Plaats says Iowa could become very important.

“People have more of a bounce in their step. They’re willing to work harder. They see light at the end of the tunnel,” said Vander Plaats. “Romney-Ryan is going to win Iowa.

“The presidential race started out in Iowa and New Hampshire,” he said. “It really could end up in Iowa and New Hampshire. Ten electoral votes — it could be the perfect storm that elects Romney.”

Follow Wayne Slater on Twitter at @wayneslater.

ISSUES WATCH: Abortion, gay marriage

Here’s a look at abortion and gay marriage in the presidential campaign:

THE FACTS

LITTLE CHANGE: On abortion, the action remains with the courts, and if Mitt Romney were to be elected, his ability to push through tough federal abortion restrictions would probably be limited unless Republicans gained firm control of both chambers of Congress. Similarly, Barack Obama couldn’t expand access to abortion without a strong Democratic majority.

STATE BATTLE: Aside from the presidential and congressional elections, there’s a lot riding on the results of state-level elections. Anti-abortion activists hope for further gains to accelerate a dramatic trend of the past decade: the enactment of scores of laws restricting access to abortion in states with Republican-controlled legislatures. Among these measures are laws in several states prohibiting abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, on the disputed premise that fetuses can feel pain at that stage; and a South Dakota law requiring doctors to warn women seeking abortions that they face increased risk of suicide by undergoing the procedure. In Mississippi, the lone abortion clinic is threatened with closure because of a new law requiring abortion providers to have hospital admitting privileges.

POLICIES VARY: On gay marriage, same-sex couples face a patchwork of conflicting laws and practices that vary from state to state. Six states allow same-sex marriage; nine more have civil unions or domestic partnerships that extend marriage-like rights to gays and lesbians. The federal government, however, doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage, nor do the vast majority of states. Complications can arise with adoptions, inheritances and survivor benefits.

ON THE BALLOT: In Minnesota, voters will determine whether to put a ban on gay marriage in the state constitution. Those in Maine, Maryland and Washington state are voting on whether to legalize gay marriage. So far, foes of gay marriage have prevailed in all 32 states where the issue reached the ballot. If that streak is broken, it could provide momentum for supporters, and perhaps even influence the Supreme Court if — as expected — it takes up cases challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

THE STAKES

Although the economy dominates voters’ concerns, social issues are a source of intense passion. Though few federal laws might be directly at stake, the next president could appoint two or more Supreme Court justices, and the court’s balance could shift to the left or right, meaning sweeping changes on both abortion and gay marriage.

WHERE THEY STAND

OBAMA: Supports access to abortion. Supports legal recognition of same-sex marriage, as a matter decided by states. Has repudiated the Defense of Marriage Act, which denies federal recognition of same-sex marriages and affirms the right of states to refuse to recognize such marriages. His administration no longer defends the law in court, but it remains on the books.

ROMNEY: Favors limits on abortion, though he previously supported access to it. Says Roe vs. Wade should be reversed, which would allow states to ban abortion. Says same-sex marriage should be banned with a constitutional amendment, not left to states. Opposes civil unions if they are equivalent to marriage, and says states should decide what rights and benefits should be allowed for same-sex couples.

BOTTOM LINE

State level fights remain front and center, but the next president’s term could see Supreme Court cases on both abortion and gay marriage that are pivotal.

To post a comment, log into your chosen social network and then add your comment below. Your comments are subject to our Terms of Service and the privacy policy and terms of service of your social network. If you do not want to comment with a social network, please consider writing a letter to the editor.